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This thread has been linked to the game 'Eternal Darkness'.
Oh don't we know it. Nintendo and their second party developers are infamous for bringing us a plethora of games full of cute characters, joyous sound effects, bright and cheery environments and colourful soundtracks. From Nintendo's very own Super Mario series and the Hal developed Pokémon series, to the Kirby range and ex-second party developer Rareware's Banjo Kazooie series. Although I am not complaining as these were all quality titles, it is just great to see Nintendo, with the aid of Silicon Knights, have come up with something that's dark, atmospheric and full of horror enough to make me wonder what that bump in the night was!
So what is Eternal Darkness? Well, for the Playstation 2 fans or the X-box fans who wont touch a Nintendo game, not even with an extremely long stick used for pole vaulting and comedy 'accidents', because of the image surrounding Nintendo, Eternal Darkness is a horror/action game in which you have to link to the minds of people fron the past, telepathically, to save the world from a great evil that would devour the Earth and keep it in a state of (you guessed it) eternal darkness. There's not one single cutesy character in the game, and there isn't an ounce of Mario Kart 64's brightly coloured settings to ruin the atmosphere generated by the audiable and the visual in game.
Hang on a second! Eternal Darkness, being a horror/action and survival game, has been released just over a month after Capcom's Resident Evil series. Both games are set in mansions and they both focus on mutated humans. Have Nintendo made Eternal Darkness too similar to Resident Evil? Suprisingly, no. Eternal Darkness goes a completely different route from Resident Evil, adding a few elements from role playing games such as spells and wizardry as well as bringing in something entirely new in such a game. A sanity meter.
The sanity meter is basically a bar indicating your state of mind, much like a health bar most commonly seen in games such as Capcom Vs SNK 2, decresing as you get hurt. How the sanity meter works is simple. You see some kind of horror, a zombie, a demon, anything living and out of the ordinary, and you lose an ounce of sanity, but there is one way to gain it back, and that is to 'finish off' your foes by making sure they're dead once they're slain. Basically, cutting them up into thin slices of meat fit to be served in a sandwich. If you lose enough sanity, you'll begin to hallucinate. The camera's angles will go wonkey and strange things will begin to happen. I was very suprised to see my TV suddenly display 'mute' and the sound go off, only to find it turn back on just before I had enough time to reach my remote. Five minutes later, the volume bar on my TV went down, and back up again. It wasn't until I decided to test to make sure my TV's settings were ok that I realised that my TV displays those messages in cyan, not the lime green in which they displayed! It got me freaked though! Ofcourse, a character from mid millenia A.D. wouldn't even know what a television is, so obviously the sanity meter works to effect you as well as your character.
Resident Evil worked in such a different way though. Resident Evil was slow, enclosed and had very little music or sound effects, only when needed. And with the limited ammunition and the fear that a zombie could jump out at you and start taking chunks out of your pulsating neck, you would feel the adrenaline rush in a much different way. Eternal Darkness tries to play tricks with your mind, Resident Evil just tries to scare you out of it, and they're both as effective as each other, despite being so completely different.
I have to say I am more than just pleasantly suprised by what Silicon Knights and Nintendo have achieved. I really did think Eternal Darkness was going to be a spinoff of Resident Evil, but Nintendo's first 'mature' (if that's what you can call it) title, for a long, long time anyway, is a quality piece of gaming that I am proud to have as part of my ever growing collection of videogames. Nintendo for babies? I think not. Nintendo only produces 'kiddie' games? I think not. Nintendo have done something out of the ordinary, and in turn have brought us a game that is way out of the ordinary junk that hits the shelves. I like it.
So what is Eternal Darkness? Well, for the Playstation 2 fans or the X-box fans who wont touch a Nintendo game, not even with an extremely long stick used for pole vaulting and comedy 'accidents', because of the image surrounding Nintendo, Eternal Darkness is a horror/action game in which you have to link to the minds of people fron the past, telepathically, to save the world from a great evil that would devour the Earth and keep it in a state of (you guessed it) eternal darkness. There's not one single cutesy character in the game, and there isn't an ounce of Mario Kart 64's brightly coloured settings to ruin the atmosphere generated by the audiable and the visual in game.
Hang on a second! Eternal Darkness, being a horror/action and survival game, has been released just over a month after Capcom's Resident Evil series. Both games are set in mansions and they both focus on mutated humans. Have Nintendo made Eternal Darkness too similar to Resident Evil? Suprisingly, no. Eternal Darkness goes a completely different route from Resident Evil, adding a few elements from role playing games such as spells and wizardry as well as bringing in something entirely new in such a game. A sanity meter.
The sanity meter is basically a bar indicating your state of mind, much like a health bar most commonly seen in games such as Capcom Vs SNK 2, decresing as you get hurt. How the sanity meter works is simple. You see some kind of horror, a zombie, a demon, anything living and out of the ordinary, and you lose an ounce of sanity, but there is one way to gain it back, and that is to 'finish off' your foes by making sure they're dead once they're slain. Basically, cutting them up into thin slices of meat fit to be served in a sandwich. If you lose enough sanity, you'll begin to hallucinate. The camera's angles will go wonkey and strange things will begin to happen. I was very suprised to see my TV suddenly display 'mute' and the sound go off, only to find it turn back on just before I had enough time to reach my remote. Five minutes later, the volume bar on my TV went down, and back up again. It wasn't until I decided to test to make sure my TV's settings were ok that I realised that my TV displays those messages in cyan, not the lime green in which they displayed! It got me freaked though! Ofcourse, a character from mid millenia A.D. wouldn't even know what a television is, so obviously the sanity meter works to effect you as well as your character.
Resident Evil worked in such a different way though. Resident Evil was slow, enclosed and had very little music or sound effects, only when needed. And with the limited ammunition and the fear that a zombie could jump out at you and start taking chunks out of your pulsating neck, you would feel the adrenaline rush in a much different way. Eternal Darkness tries to play tricks with your mind, Resident Evil just tries to scare you out of it, and they're both as effective as each other, despite being so completely different.
I have to say I am more than just pleasantly suprised by what Silicon Knights and Nintendo have achieved. I really did think Eternal Darkness was going to be a spinoff of Resident Evil, but Nintendo's first 'mature' (if that's what you can call it) title, for a long, long time anyway, is a quality piece of gaming that I am proud to have as part of my ever growing collection of videogames. Nintendo for babies? I think not. Nintendo only produces 'kiddie' games? I think not. Nintendo have done something out of the ordinary, and in turn have brought us a game that is way out of the ordinary junk that hits the shelves. I like it.
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Even though my TV controls appear a different colour, I was still freaked out! I first thought my brother was trying to play tricks against me!
It wasn't until I tried adjusting the volume myself that I realised what was going on.
Brilliant the way it can fool your mind so easily...or is it just me? lol
It wasn't until I tried adjusting the volume myself that I realised what was going on.
Brilliant the way it can fool your mind so easily...or is it just me? lol
Although I'm sure most people who buy the game will want to have the sanity pretty low, just to be scares sh!tless. Avoiding this will mean not getting your money's worth, right?
It is actually quite difficult to avoid getting your sanity low once in a while - I can guarantee you'll see some of the effects at some point of the game.
i was shocked!!
lol
i had heard about one part where a girl is in the shower with slit wrists!
(im not spoiling anything here dont worry) but i never saw it!
i saw a girl screaming and shouting but no slit wrists!
i guess my sanity wasnt low enough!
but, as you all have said, the sanity effects do mess you up!
some of them are horrible!
my fave (or worst, if you look at it like that) is when you are playing as the message boy, i thnk its chapter 8.
you have your sword in your belt and are running around the church/monastery, but with sanity way down low you see arms coming out of the floor and as you run past your sword cuts the hands off!!!
its gross!
lol
i had heard about one part where a girl is in the shower with slit wrists!
(im not spoiling anything here dont worry) but i never saw it!
i saw a girl screaming and shouting but no slit wrists!
i guess my sanity wasnt low enough!
but, as you all have said, the sanity effects do mess you up!
some of them are horrible!
my fave (or worst, if you look at it like that) is when you are playing as the message boy, i thnk its chapter 8.
you have your sword in your belt and are running around the church/monastery, but with sanity way down low you see arms coming out of the floor and as you run past your sword cuts the hands off!!!
its gross!
I found a girl in the bath who was bathing in her own blood, screaming.
Made me jump a bloody mile!
Made me jump a bloody mile!
i think its amazing how different this game can be!
to be honest i havent layed t for a good few months now.
i have a problem you see.
i always get a game, play it for ages get really far then buy a new game and dont play the other one for ages!!!
to be honest i havent layed t for a good few months now.
i have a problem you see.
i always get a game, play it for ages get really far then buy a new game and dont play the other one for ages!!!
Edgy wrote:
> I found a girl in the bath who was bathing in her own blood,
> screaming.
>
> Made me jump a bloody mile!
That's actually you dead in the bath, that;s why it's supposed to be so scary.
I cacked myself when that happened the first time, scarier than all of Resi Evil put together.
> I found a girl in the bath who was bathing in her own blood,
> screaming.
>
> Made me jump a bloody mile!
That's actually you dead in the bath, that;s why it's supposed to be so scary.
I cacked myself when that happened the first time, scarier than all of Resi Evil put together.
Aye - The more I play Eternal Darkness, the more scarier it becomes in comparison to Resident Evil - which got less scary as you continue.
resi doesnt immerse you in the story anyway as near as much as this game!
i think i might go dust it off and start playing it again!
tell you what i dont particularly like, when you cast a spell, it makes me feel all wierd when the funny chanting noises etc happen!
lol
i think i might go dust it off and start playing it again!
tell you what i dont particularly like, when you cast a spell, it makes me feel all wierd when the funny chanting noises etc happen!
lol
Edgy wrote:
> Aye - The more I play Eternal Darkness, the more scarier it becomes in
> comparison to Resident Evil - which got less scary as you continue.
Eternal Darkness doesn't rely on shock tactics as much as Resi Evil, it's very much psychological that's why it's so damn tense. But that I hate is the loud knocking on the door in the mansion.
> Aye - The more I play Eternal Darkness, the more scarier it becomes in
> comparison to Resident Evil - which got less scary as you continue.
Eternal Darkness doesn't rely on shock tactics as much as Resi Evil, it's very much psychological that's why it's so damn tense. But that I hate is the loud knocking on the door in the mansion.
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